Under purple skies

On a warm Iberian island under purple skies. On the gentle cliffs above the glistening midnight blue sea. On the flat roof-cum-balcony of a white washed villa. On a wicker chair, padded with soft white cushions. She sits. And watches the stars unfold.

They twinkle infinitely in patterns of such astounding beauty that the only acceptable action is to recline and drink in the celestial display.

Below, a man glances up at the balcony — its occupant hidden from view — the sky unfolding above. Golden hues spread across the endless purple night. He sits, his head resting against a rock as the waves nearby lap against the shore in a sequence not unlike a blissful arpeggio.

Both of them, in unison, struck dumb with awe at the quiet beauty of the cosmos.

A balearic hymn to an unnamed Goddess that masters the art of gentle euphoria so completely, combines cosmic-disco tropes with such loving care, that it becomes, by the end of its seven minutes, one of the most moving thing we’ve heard in a long time. Synth stabs, co-opted African rhythms, cooing male vocals under waves of arpegiated bliss: Bubble Club’s The Goddess is one of the very reasons we write this blog and we can’t praise it higher than that.

International Feel will release Bubble Club’s quite unfathomably beautiful The Goddess on March 7th. Bubble Club is Dan Keeling former head of A&R at Parlophone and former MD of Island Records…which I guess makes us total slackers. The 12″ will come backed with an epic Quiet Village remix.

Lord Boyd graced these pages at the end of last year with the wonderfully titled Space Jordan 96, all tape warped eastern strings and dub beats. Here his handiwork is applied to a an equally cut-up approach to western strings. Swimming in the same channel as The Field and Gold Panda Lord Boyd’s Better Beedies loops and cuts end of the millennia string washes into a pre-dawn reverie, a half submerged glimpse of light flickering on the water.